| |
Contact:
Claudia Monlouis
Tuesday, September 20, 2005 - A Memorandum of Understanding signed
between the United Sates Agency for International Development (USAID) and the
OECS Disaster Risk Reduction Program is expected to go a along way towards
reducing the region’s risk profile.
USAID Mission Director Ms. Karen Turner says since the Caribbean is well known
for its vulnerability to natural disasters, the United States government
believes Disaster Risk Reduction and Management are important economic
considerations for the region.
Addressing officials at the signing ceremony on Tuesday, September 20th, at the
Headquarters of the OECS Secretariat in Castries, Ms. Turner said central to US
support for the region’s Disaster Risk Reduction Program, will be a five year
development strategy which is being implemented over the period 2005 to 2009.
She described Disaster Risk Reduction as an integral element of economic policy
planning and, most importantly, economic policy implementation.
“This particular initiative could not come at a more relevant time. After a very
active hurricane season last year and an even more active season this year – and
especially in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina – the importance of being
better prepared for natural disasters, such as hurricanes and being proactive in
reducing the risk of catastrophic loss from such disasters cannot be
overemphasized.”
According to Ms. Turner “No longer should we create assets unless we
simultaneously undertake actions to ensure we can preserve those assets”. She
observed that “Social progress cannot be made if every few years we are in the
position of merely replacing critical infrastructure and assets that have been
destroyed as a result of a natural disaster.”
OECS Director General Dr. Len Ishmael co-signed the agreement and welcomed the
program to the region. Dr. Ishmael says she is pleased with how quickly USAID
has moved to operationalize the program, which she describes as goodwill coming
at a time when the region is going through very sobering times, economically and
socially.
“In fact we saw very realistically the impact of one external event, which was
hurricane Ivan last year; when the economic performance of Grenada was projected
to have had an economic growth of 5.4 percent last year and in fact what
happened in the space of 12 hours was that it’s potential for GDP was wiped out
for two years,” Dr. Ishmael added.
|